January 2014

January 29, 2014. New York Court Ruling May Hamper Gay Parents. Margarita López Torres, a Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Judge, ruled on January 6 that because New York State had legalized gay marriage and allowed a married gay couple to both be listed as parents on their child's birth certificate, she would not grant the non-biological mother a second parent adoption. Judge Torres's reasoning was that granting such an adoption would mean that "true marriage equality remains yet to be attained [and that] a same-sex marriage remains somehow insufficient to establish a parent-child relationship." However, sympathetic we are to this view, we share the view of Susan Sommer, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense Fund who said: "It's very important for this couple to have an adoption, because the presumption of parentage may not be respected if they leave the state. We continue to live in a country that has a patchwork of respect and disrespect of same-sex couples." Ms. Sommer will be a speaker at this year's CAP Conference. More Information.

January 27, 2014. Eleventh Annual CAP/NYLS Conference Registration Will Open This Week. We are delighted to announce that the registration for the Eleventh Annual Adoption Law and Policy Conference, to be held on March 7, 2014, will go live this week. This year conference will cover the exciting changes in adoption and child welfare law sparked by the DOMA and gay marriages cases, the Supreme Court's ICWA ruling and the possible major changes in U.S. international adoption and child welfare policy contemplated by the CHIFF bill now before Congress. Stay tuned!

January 23, 2014. News on CHIFF. We are delighted that Dr. Jane Aronson endorses the Children in Families First bill, also known as CHIFF. Dr. Aronson urges lawmakers to pass it at the earliest opportunity. CHIFF makes critical structural reforms to the U.S. Government's international assistance to children living without families. All children need that special bond with an adult who provides a permanent, safe and nurturing home - a parent. Millions of children today live without families, and we all have to recognize the long road ahead to change that. CHIFF establishes our guiding star, and it charts a course correction for the U.S. Government so that our efforts on behalf of children will be more effective, by strengthening families, reunifying families, and creating families through domestic and international adoption, because families are the best place for children.

January 22, 2014. Russian Adoption Ban--One Year Later. International adoptions from Russia to the United States ended one year ago. For the children who will never have families this is a tragedy that never should have happened. The current status of many of the children is unknown to their U.S. prospective adoptive parents as is the health and well being of the children. The administration has been largely silent throughout the year on this issue. Senators including Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) have pressed the case of these children but with no success. More Information.

January 16, 2014. Government and Other Notices: Kenya. The Department of State has reported that the Kenya Center Authority, the Adoption Committee, has been disbanded. This action will clearly impact Kenya's ability to process international adoptions, particularly since Kenya is a Hague country. The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is working to ascertain how this lack of a Kenyan Central Authority will impact in process adoptions from Kenya to the United States. More Information.

January 15, 2014. Hurray for the Golden Globes. We were delighted to learn that for the second year in a row, the Golden Globes after party, hosted by co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, honored World Wide Orphans, the foundation begun by Dr. Jane Aronson. WWO seeks to help orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world, a cause which everyone in our community embraces. Dr. Jane, as she is known in the adoption community, is also one of the leading medical experts on international adoption and the person who helped thousands of adoptive and biological parents in her practice. More Information.

January 14, 2014. Kyrgyzstan Reported to Resume International Adoptions. RIA reports that Kyrgyzstan has lifted its ban on international adoption. According to this report, in 2010-12, there were 304 international adoptions out of a total of 2,243 adoptions. The most recent shutdown was a result of a significant number of tainted adoption cases from Kyrgyzstan to Italy. The Department of State, however, is still reporting that Kyrgyzstan is closed to international adoption. More Information.